Force printing black and white (using new black cartridge) when other cartridges have expired [ Edited ]

[mecoolai]

I have a Officejet Pro L7555 printer, so it has 3 colors + Black.  Truthfully I only use the black and I HARDLY every use the other colors.  My problem is that I want to force print just black and white pages.  My other colors expired (I have around 60-80% full on the other colors), but the black cartridge is fairly new (4 mo old).  I purchased the HP88XL (I believe its the high capacity black ink cartridge) and so far its been serving me well until these past couple of days because the other ink cartridges have expired.  How can I force print black and white (I changed my printing settings to fast draft / black and white)?

[dieu]

Same problem here!  Somewhat criminal that the firmware in the printer uses all the color cartridges to make black even though there is a dedicated black cartridge installed.  The reason for this is clear. HP knows this process wastes ink. Thus, forcing the consumer to purchase expensive color cartridges prematurely. This is one of the biggest consumer frauds in history.  In fact, if I replaced the cartridges every time the printer posted a “low ink” message, I would be replacing the cartridges every month. I will never purchase another HP printer again…

[PrintDoc]

Sorry, but there is nothing subversive going on here. You bought a color printer.  As far as the color printer is concerned, it needs to be ready to print color pages whenever it is asked.

To do this it needs to keep the color nozzles clean, clear and ready.  It takes ink to do that.

Every single color printer does the same thing, so you will not find refuge with another brand.  It sounds like you ought to buy a black-only printer - probably a laser printer since I do not think there are black-only inkjets on the market.

[dieu]

Sorry, but there is nothing subversive going on here. You bought a color printer.  As far as the color printer is concerned, it needs to be ready to print color pages whenever it is asked.

To do this it needs to keep the color nozzles clean, clear and ready.  It takes ink to do that.

Every single color printer does the same thing, so you will not find refuge with another brand.  It sounds like you ought to buy a black-only printer - probably a laser printer since I do not think there are black-only inkjets on the market.

Don't be sorry buddy. What is subversive is the fact that printing a mono Word document results in a draining of the color cartridges.  Since HP became an INK company, this subersive engineering has been status quo. 

[Randy_K]

dieu -

   Color inkjet printers are designed to maintain themselves to be able to print in either color or black at any time.  As PrintDoc pointed out, use of color ink from time to time is necessary to maintain this capability.  See, for example, the link in this message for insight as to design parameters regarding color ink usage.

[Abair]

If this is all so logical, why is the black ink cartridge trhee times as large as the color cartridges, but the printer only uses the black ink to enhance the colors?

It would have been simple to clear the color jets for one or two characters, then use black ink.

HP is LOSING MONEY because I and many like me are avoiding many print jobs, because it's too cumbersome to switch to Black Ink ONLY, each time we want to print an interim document. Instead we wait to print only the final version.

Abair